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read between the lines
there's a tsunami aftermath n i'm groaning away here? screw my earlier statement. i jus read more of the news on the net. it pains me to see so much devastation, to read, hear, see it in the media. n i realised this ironic thing: every one of us is so willing to give to the tsunami fund now. but when sufferings in iraq n afghanistan happened, when the earthquake in Bam came....i don't think anyone i noe actually did something physical to help. n i was thinking how ironic it was that it takes a tragedy to hit home before you finally feel moved to action, before you finally feel the pain.i mean for me, i did feel for the iraq n afghanistan ppl but, it's only when i heard that the tsunami hit my own country that it finally hit home (no pun intended). what? i said. penang? you're kidding me! n recently there have been a lot of news features on the scene at penang on malaysian tv n when i saw them i felt really bad....there were so many malays affected, in the coastal area in penang....n there was this guy who said he regretted not alerting his family n frens when he saw a few waves coming. he said something like "when i studied waves in school, they never became this big. i thought it was just the normal waves. you never see it coming. that's the problem..." n then his voice broke off. then they showed him shedding a few tears while standing by the bamboo pole that held his family's clothes, but he bravely swiped the tears away n said sth like "i have to be a man. i have to keep on going for the rest of the villagers who are alive." they also showed this woman from the same village at the gravesite of her daughter. she told the reporter in malay that on that fateful day, her "cucu" (grandaughter, who was 4 yrs old) had asked her to take her to the beach, but she declined cos she said she was busy with housework. instead she allowed the grandaughter's "abang" (older brother, who was only a few yrs older) and the grandaughter's mother (aka. her daughter) to go to the beach. she said at 1 or 2pm (i can't remember), "hati saya tak sabar" (my heart was not at ease) n she felt something was wrong (such is the intuition of women). she said she got into someone's car n went to the beach. she found her grandaughter n grandson, but when she asked her grandaughter "mana ibu?" (where's mom?), her grandaughter said "air laut dah ambik dia" (the waves took her away) n then her tears choked her as she told the story. she said later she found out that her daughter was trying to save 5 other kids but they all got swept away n all died. she said she cud have taken the news if her daughter died of a disease, but here her daughter had died "for no reason"...n she cried quite a bit before calming herself down n strongly saying that this was the will of god and that she must accept whatever god gives her no matter what. n other videos like that, n several pages of pictures and print in the new straits times (NST)...i felt really sad n really bad bcos these ppl r drawing strength from the wrong god....which is why i am also led to believe there is a reason why some children were left orphaned...so that the opportunity for them to hear the gospel can commence. like that miracle one-year-old child in some coastal part of m'sia who was found alive on a mattress in her room. the waves swept her whole family away in their house, but her hanging cradle managed to fall onto a floating mattress. n this is the miracle part: the mattress actually floated out of her room, out of the house, into the sea again....and actually floated back into the house, into the room, and the door of her room was closed shut again. woah...i really believe god's angels protected her that day. i believe god has great plans for her. n the human compassion side of malaysians has really come out too. i feel a both touched and at the same time in pain (bittersweet) when i read the local papers about prison inmates that are willing to give ALL the meagre pension they have from living in jail to the tsunami fund. according to NST, their wages range from 40sen to RM1 a day n that money is supposed to be kept aside for them to use when they are free from jail. in fact, prison officers had to limit the amount of giving to up to a third of their savings cos the officers said, if they give everything they have nothing to live on when they get out of jail. n what really broke my heart in yesterday's news was: in the taiping (ipoh) prison, 10 prisoners on death row contributed a collective amount of RM90 to the already ballooning fund raised by other prisoners. it just goes to show u that ppl on death row are not heartless evil criminals. i mean, that's so painful for me to take. putting myself in their shoes is very scary n excruciating, since death is my greatest fear. n here's the stuff i found on the net tonite that choked me, that moved me to pray for these ppl: "7,000 More Bodies Discovered in Indonesia. the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake, and where officials on Friday counted about 7,000 additional bodies — mostly in Meulaboh, which had been cut off by washed-out roads — raising Indonesia's toll to 101,318.
India's death toll also rose to 10,001 Friday after officials reported recovery of 301 bodies in the isolated Andaman and Nicobar islands and nine others on India's southern coast.
That raised the overall death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami to 147,841."
"[In India] I saw a body today that the crows were eating," said C.S.S. Vairamuthu, a fisherman for about 30 of his 40 years. All his neighbors have been eaten by crows, he said, his eyes welling with tears." |
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